


You're important.

by Odyssey



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Exhaustion, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kissing, M/M, idk i like this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2018-01-11 17:23:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyssey/pseuds/Odyssey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo is exhausted and really, really guilty. Nico coaxes the restless son of Hephaestus to go to sleep.<br/>-<br/>Enjoy a fairly funny sleepy Leo, then things get all serious, then make out. I really like this, but then again I started working on this at 2 AM and finished it about 4 AM, so my opinions may be different in the morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're important.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! I was all ready to finally go to bed, then this idea popped into my head and, well, the rest, as they say, is history. I'm Leo-level tired right now, so it will be... interesting to read when I'm well rested. It may be important to note, my writing is affected by my surroundings, (It snows my stories have snow) so you may want to know I was listening to Oblivion by Bastille, especially towards the end, while I wrote this. Another thing that I should state: I really have no idea what was in Leo's rambling. It was really just my tired raving, and I'm not known for being particularly funny, so if it's morbidly depressing, I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY AT THE TIME I'M SORRY. Warning: There is a little bit of swearing in this! -Odyssey

_Force equals mass times acceleration. If I could just rig these pulleys with an extra pulley and two meters of rope, I could set up a counterweight to balance the Athena Parthenos so that it’s weight…_

Leo was a mechanic. He was a mechanic to his core. There was nothing Leo Valdez appreciated more than when everyone else except for whomever was taking watch was asleep, and he was just down in the ship, _his_ ship, running from the engine room to the Athena Parthenos to the 24 hour snack bar like road runner. He’d even installed a sink in the main hallway so he could quickly and efficiently wash his hands. Dude, he was _not_ letting motor oil touch his food. No way. Bad Boy Supreme had enough monsters on his incredibly hot ass without dying from accidental ADHD poisoning. He loved working on his own terms, switching back and forth between projects. It made Leo stay up late, like a bat or something. Leo was the Man Bat. Wait, no. Batman. Leo was Batman. Batman Valdez.

Leo shuffled around a few drafting papers on the console. He laid on his back to tighten the screw on a pipe that was hissing out steam. All the while, he was mumbling _na na na na na na na na VALDEZ_ under his breath. His fingers rapped on the pipe, making sure it was tight. The heat should’ve seared his skin off, but Leo was a fire user. He wasn’t bothered by such mundane matters. Imagine if Batman was a fire user. He could just waltz into burning buildings without a care, save a lot of people. Leo wondered briefly why he’d never thought about being a fire fighter. Like, his mom even died in a fire. _Nah,_ he thought to himself. _My mechanic skills of pure awesome must be used to their full extent._ Machines- that’s where Leo belonged. He didn’t quite get people.

“Are you… _humming_ to yourself?”

Speaking of not getting people. Leo sat up, dodging hitting his head on the pipe to see Nico di Angelo standing in the doorway, looking incredulous. For a moment, Leo was disappointed. This meant he wasn’t the only one up besides the watch. He wasn’t the bat. He wasn’t Batman. Ugh, did this mean Nico was Batman? Not cool.

“Leo?” Nico looked legitimately concerned now. “You okay?”

“Who, me? Fine, fine and dandy. Spectacular. Brilliant. Okey-dokey, even. And there is nothing better than okey-dokey,” Leo rambled.

“Okay, you’re going to bed,” Nico told him, crossing the room over to Nico.

“Nope, I’ve got stuff to do,” Leo protested as Nico hoisted him up. “Gotham needs me.”

Di Angelo rolled his eyes. “You’re one weird cookie, Valdez.”

“Did you just call me a _weird cookie?_ ”

Nico groaned.

“Seriously, who does that?” babbled Leo. “ _Weird cookie._ What about me is cookie-like? I mean, I’m hella sweet, but I think I’m more spicy.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Not a very good quality in a cookie. I mean, unless you’re a dragon or something. Festus, do you eat red hot chili cookies?” the exhausted Latino boy asked the masthead as Nico dragged him past.

“Dragons eat eucalyptus,” Nico said gently.

Leo thought this was the coolest piece of information ever. “What? _Really?_ No, _really_ really?! That’s so cool! Like koala bears? Wait! Are dragons and koala bears, like, cousins or something? Now _that_ would be amazing. Imagine being at like, a mythical beasts and beings conference and introducing your species and being like, ‘oh, hello, I’m representing dragons, we are second cousins to koala bears. Fear, me, bitch.’”

Nico laughed softly. _It was a pretty laugh_ , Leo thought dreamily. There really was no other way to describe it. Nico’s quiet peals of laughter weren’t necessarily feminine, or anything, more like… childlike. Like when a little kid finds a frog or something and absolutely loves it and is astonished when it hops for the first time. Hey, Leo hasn’t slept for 46 hours and 32 minutes. Don’t have high expectations for his analogies.

“Hm. I know Zhang can turn into dragons, but can he turn into koala bears?” he pondered out loud. “Those are the real questions of life. I ask the real questions, Nico.”

“Come on,” Nico insisted, not answering Leo’s bullshit. “Only a bit further.” He pushed him further down the hallway.

“Nooooo,” Leo moaned, trying to resist. “No, no, no, Nico,” he complained. “Nope. I can’t.”

Nico reached Leo’s bedroom and flung open the door, throwing Leo inside and following after, shutting it behind him.

“Why not?”

Leo had been acting drunk on sleeplessness, but he sobered up quick. He scowled at Nico. “I don’t stay asleep long. Nightmares.”

Nico nodded. “Losing Percy and Annabeth was hard on everybody.”

“No, Nico, you don’t get it,” Leo muttered. Nobody got it, except for maybe Hazel. “It’s my fault. I caused it.”

Nico started to protest, but Leo silenced him with a wave of his hand. “No, hear me out. I don’t mean survivor’s guilt, or anything like that. I literally, actually caused it.” He drew a shaky breath. “Back in Utah, I ran into Nemisis.”

“Goddess of revenge.”

Leo nodded. “She… she gave me a gift. Knowledge. Whatever I wanted. Ask a question, break a fortune cookie, get my lucky numbers. But she warned me that it would come with a terrible, terrible price. So I swore never to use it. But back in Rome…” Leo looked down. He hadn’t realized he had been clenching his fists. His knuckles were turning white. “We were gonna die. Me, Hazel, and Frank. Eidolons. The Archemides sphere, it was there. I could use it. I could save us. But I needed the code. It was random, no way to figure it out. We were gonna die. So, I cracked open the cookie. And Percy and Annabeth were the price.”

A tear traced down his cheek.

“Bullshit.”

Leo looked at him questioningly.

“I said bullshit, Leo. Did you push Percy and Annabeth down that godsdamned pit? Did you wish for their fate?”

Reluctantly, Leo shook his head.

“Exactly, Valdez. Now, sleep. I know the nightmares are bad. I can’t sleep myself. But you have to try. It’s the best thing you can do right now. For anybody.” Nico stood to walk out of the room.

Leo frowned. Nico didn’t even have a proper bed. “When was the last time you slept?” he asked accusingly.

Nico gave him a sad, tired, smirk. “That doesn’t matter, Valdez. I’m not important. You are. Now get some rest.”

“Wait!” Leo shouted hoarsely, grabbing Nico’s wrist.

“What?”

“You take that back.” Leo barely recognized his own voice, it was so filled with outrage.

“Take what back?” asked Nico, tugging away from Leo.

“That you’re not important.

Nico rolled his eyes. “But I’m _not,_ Leo. The only things I do are screw things up.”

“No,” Leo insisted, not letting him go. It infuriated him that Nico couldn’t see how special he was. Leo tried to tell him. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish at least a dozen times. But, as usual, words failed him. _Thanks, Dad._ So, instead, Leo decided to show him.

Leo’s mouth pressed against Nico’s, hot and urgent. Nico immediately kissed back, standing on his tip toes, which Leo thought was adorable. Nico’s left hand twisted through Leo’s curls. The tip of Leo’s nose glided along the shorter boy’s cheekbones. It was heated and intense, limbs desperately wrapped around each other. Nico’s right hand rose up. Left arm pressed against the Italian boy’s back, Leo’s left hand rose up to meet it, lacing together their long fingers delicately. Nico tasted like exhaustion and pomegranate petals. They continued kissing, feeling like the world, or maybe just them, would split apart if they didn’t lean on each other. It was an ethereal inferno, a shadowy flame, a ghostly fire that burned brighter than the sun. The two demigods broke apart.

Leo’s forehead leaned on that of the son of Hades. Their lips were quivering, just inches apart. “You’re important,” Leo breathed. “You’re important to me.”

Nico didn’t argue.

**Author's Note:**

> You should really leave your opinions so I can read them before I actually read this fully awake. It'll be funny.


End file.
